Fire gases, FTIR

The use of FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometers as a continuous monitoring technique overcomes many of the problems associated in analyses of hot fire gases. FTIR offers an opportunity to set up a calibration and prediction method for each gas showing a characteristic spectral band in the infrared region of the spectrum. A European project, SAFTR, aims to further develop the FTIR gas analysis of smoke gases to be an applicable and reliable method for the determination of toxic components in combustion gases related to fire test... 

Various methods and instruments are available for measuring gas concentrations in fire effluents, e.g., gas detector tubes, ion-selective electrodes, GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. An extensive review of the methods is provided in ASTM E 800 and ISO 19701. 

As part of the Megacity Initiative Local and Global Research Observations (MILAGRO) project, a comprehensive airborne study by Yokelson et al. reported the first detailed field measurements of biomass emissions in the Northern Hemisphere tropics [169]. Volatile emissions were measured from 20 deforestation and crop residue fires on the Yucatan peninsula. This included two trace gases which are often considered to be useful as indicators of biomass burning. One we have discussed before, namely acetonitrile, and the other is hydrogen cyanide. A variety of instrumentation was co-deployed for this investigation (FTIR spectroscopy, GD-FID, a GC-Trace Analytical Reduction Gas Detector, fluorescence and chemiluminescence instruments and various other spectrometers). PTR-MS was used to monitor methanol, acetonitrile, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl propanal, hydroxyacetone plus methyl acetate, benzene and 13 other volatile species. 

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